Step-by-step guide:1.) Collect together unwanted or used candles, tea lights and teacups or other similar sized items to create your candles in.

2.) Place a plastic bowl in a saucepan half full with boiling water and heat on a medium gas.

3.) Cut up the unwanted candles into medium sizes pieces and place these in the plastic bowl.

I used a chopping board and a sharp knife to cut up a large
red candle and the wax from tea lights.

4.) Remove the casing from as many tea lights as containers you have to make candles in. Turn the candles over and take the wax-covered string out from the centre of the base and put to one side.

5.) Add 5 drops of scented essential oil to the candle wax that is melting on the stove (I used lavender but any scent will work).

6.) Remove the paper packaging from a metal tin can and clean the insides using a little water. To dry it so that the water does not cool the wax later, place the can into an oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes approximately.

7.) When the wax has completely melted and is in a liquid form cover the surfaces that you are working on in disposable paper (I used baking paper) and turn off the gas.

Fully melted wax - flower petals can even be added at this
stage for a more luxurious candle

8.) Carefully remove the plastic bowl from the saucepan with rubber gloves and pour the wax into the heated tin (I did this in a kitchen sink with a large wad newspaper lining the inside to stop any wax spilling and needing to be scraped off).

9.) Immediately after, pour the hot wax into the teacups. Take care to ensure that the level of wax does not go over the height of the wick that was removed from the tea lights.

10.) While the wax is still in a liquid form position and place the wick from the tea lights into the centre of the candles.

11.) Leave to dry for around 1 hour 30 minutes and then carefully remove any wax that spilt up the sides of the teacups by scraping with a sharp knife.

These teacup candles make a great Valentine's day craft and can be re-used once the wick has been burnt down. To do this simply remove the left over wax from the teacups and use it as wax to be melted in the process shown above when you re-fill the teacups.